Disappeared News

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Suppose a weather report on TV let us know that it was 81 degrees out with a relative humidity of 70 percent. Ok, a bit hot and muggy. But the report is accurate, right? Yes.

What perhaps they could also report is that the hurricane is still coming. Which is to say, one can be accurate and still not report the real news.

The Star-Advertiser reports that here on Oahu our electricity is cheaper “thanks” to lower fuel costs.

Thanks would be premature. Electricity costs in Hawaii are still at about three times the national average.

That $10 is only a 3.5% drop over January, and if you look at the chart they provided, costs were significantly higher, say, June through October. Heck, October was 3.6% up from January.

That $10 is just in the noise, as we old shortwave listeners would have said in the day. A household could have wiped it out simply by baking a couple of pizzas and taking some long, hot showers in the muggy weather.

The news, if there is any, is that electricity costs in Hawaii remain at the same obscene levels, and that nothing so far has given us any relief.